


Keep Smiling Through

by Chellacat



Series: We'll Meet Again [3]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Tissue Warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 15:02:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15951767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chellacat/pseuds/Chellacat
Summary: Yelena Belova wore many masks in her life, played many parts and in the end the only role that really mattered was being Aunt Peggy.





	Keep Smiling Through

 

She had been born Yelena Belova in Russia in 1915.  The fledgling Red Room had just begun it’s decades long experiment to create the best female spies the world would ever see.  Yelena was the first Black Widow but not the last.  She was also the first to slip free of the chains of the Red Room and fly far away from her former masters.  Instead she took mercenary jobs as she could find them and for a few years made her way in the world, without a care for anyone but herself.  She became Dottie Underwood by choice, taking the name and playing a new role.  When she found herself suddenly out witted by one Margaret Carter she had been shocked, and then elated, someone she could truly pit her wit’s against.  Over the course of a few years they came against each other again and again.  In the end Dottie was almost glad when Peggy Carter came out ahead and took her into custody.  It wasn’t exactly the custody she had expected though.  Instead of being interrogated by the SSR she had been taken to Howard Starks private home and kept in very nice accommodations, albeit secure ones.  Peggy and Howard came to talk to her every day.  Slowly she began to build a friendship with them and then they made the offer.  The offer of a lifetime and it really was a lifetime.  A new life for her.  A new name, a challenging job and the most audacious role she would ever play.  Itching to be out in the world again and with a nice chunk of change from Howard, a job running a fledgling spy agency and a brand new identity as one Peggy Carter, Dottie took flight and she never looked back.

 

Well, she didn’t look back for a very long time.  In 1997, just before she retired from Shield, Nick Fury brought back from a mission to Russia a very scrappy little blond.  A Red Room Reject Fury told her sourly.  He’d come across her when the little heathen as he called her tried to put poison in the cup of a diplomat.  He’d taken her into custody and decided to take pity on her.

 

“Snarly little thing, can’t be more than ten years old, if that.  Couldn’t leave her there to get caught and thrown in some Russian gulag if her masters didn’t come for her, didn’t particularly want her masters getting her back either.  You know how they deal with failure in the Red Room.”

 

He was right, she did know, intimately.  She had killed most of her fellow students in that black pit of despair.  She had looked the child over and the scars on her wrist from the handcuffs she had no doubt had to sleep with, every night for years, had her twitching.  This was the moment she looked back and saw herself, young and scared and determined not to die.  She looked into the little blonds blue eyes and saw the ghost of Christmas past and wondered.

It didn’t take much paperwork to have the girl declared her ward and then with a little help from Peggy and some impressive hacking by Agent Kate Libby she was suddenly the proud great Aunt of one Sharon Dorothy Carter.  Illegitimate granddaughter of Michael Carter.   Orphaned and taken in by her ageing aunt. 

Sharon became the daughter she had always longed for.  The girl had a tough time of it at first, but slowly she built trust with her and they came to love one another very much.  Dottie knew that Sharon would never be free of what had happened to her in her childhood, but she tried her best to give Sharon all the normal experiences she could.  She flourished.  It wasn’t unexpected that she would look at the line of work she did, it was in her blood, had been infused into it from the moment she learned to talk and lie and observe as a toddler. 

The day Sharon graduated from the Shield Academy was one of the proudest moments of Dottie’s life. 

 

She was old now.  The years had been good to her, but the days when she ran agency’s and had the worlds finest spies trembling under her gaze were over now.  She had become a legend, one that many would never understand.  She knew that her time was coming to an end and the last part, the final curtain call was about to begin.  It had been a good life, she had made a difference but her second chance to be as an almost mother had been the most rewarding. 

 

Peggy Carter looked as young and beautiful as she had been the first time Dottie had met her.  Her hair was different, dyed a dark honey blond today and long, nearly to the small of her back.  Dottie smiled at her old friend warmly and offered her a seat.

“Well, they finally decided to get rid of me darling.”  She started as she poured the tea.  “Neuro toxin, slow acting, in my water tablets, it would probably look like Alzheimer’s .  Not very clever, honestly,I feel a little insulted they thought that would get past the great _Peggy Carter_.”

The real Peggy frowned and took the tea cup from her.

“Well, we've suspected they might make such a move for a while now.  They are moving up their plans.  I was actually coming to tell you that they found Steve.  I suppose this move is the first against him. Please tell me you’re not doing something stupid like taking them.”

“What do you take me for, an amateur, some self-sacrificing idealist?”

Peggy blew softly on her tea and raised an elegant brown.

“I might have turned Peggy Carter into some perfect ideal but neither you nor I were ever anything of the sort.”

“Very true.  So, I would expect that you have some grand plan?”

“Oh, you know, the spot light always appealed to me, one last act on this stage of life.  I think it will be my swan song, the final performance from a great actress.  The last thing I can do for you my friend, to keep you safe a little longer, to help protect him, if I can.”

“Oh Dottie, you do know, don’t you?  Just how much you mean to me?  You have been the greatest of friends in my life time.  I could never have achieved even half as much as I have without your help.”

“Nonsense, you would have found a way, you always do.  But I have enjoyed every minute of it.  And remember that being you kept me safe too.  They never found out what happened to poor Dottie Underwood and the Russians long ago wrote Yelena Belova off as dead.  I have managed to live a good life, I have helped people.  I had a chance to be a mother of sorts, something that was taken from me long ago.  I am grateful for the chance you took on me and thankful that we crossed each other’s paths.    So now, I’m going to listen to all your stories of your boy wonder and when he arrives to see you, I will do my level best to pull to the wool over his eyes.  One last mission for this old spy.”

“For the greatest spy.  No one ever suspected you were anyone other than me.  Well, let’s begin then.  You’ve heard it all before of course, but the first time I met Steve Rogers….”

 

 

 

Dottie sat up in the bed, a book open, flat against the sheets, resting quietly.  Steve Rogers was a sight to behold.  She could understand Peggy’s love for the man.  He was kind and sweet and so utterly in love with Peggy Carter and so desperately devastated that time had taken them from each other.  She had felt cruel for putting the poor boy through her act, but Hydra as always were watching.  She hoped that one day, he would understand that she had lied to him, not to be cruel but to protect him and Peggy both.  When Sharon came to visit she passed her a short letter and asked the girl to give it to Peggy for her. 

 

Dear Captain Rogers, Steve,

You don’t know me, not really, but I know you.  I felt dreadfully heartless to have deliberately caused you the pain of knowing me.  I took Peggy’s place long ago in order for her to play the role she needed to.  When you came to visit the care home I played my part, just as we had both agreed I would.  I have listened to Peggy’s stories of you for nearly seventy years, I feel sometimes as though I knew you just as she did.  You are a good man, but still only human.  I hope that this apology, for that is what it is, will reach you.  I am sorry for any part I had in harming you.  I am sorry that when I die you most likely will believe that I am the one whom you loved.  I am sorry that have suffered so in this life. 

Forgive her.  Forgive Peggy for what she had to do.  Had there been any other way she would have found it.   She has been my friend, loyal and true and honest.  I am so glad that she will have you going forward.  Her life had been a hard one.  She had been true to you for seventy years.  You were the only man she ever loved and I think ever will love.  Look after her for me.  Help her carry the burden she took on.  Protect her, she is stubborn to a fault.  But most of all, be her friend, she needs that most of all. 

Be good to each other,

Fondly

Yelena Belova, the original Black Widow.

 

Dottie was over a century old and she felt every second of those years heavy in her bones.  This was the end.  It had come quickly, a nasty flu, sapping the last of her strength.  Sharon was with her, the poor girl had been sat by her beside for days.

 

“My beautiful girl.  It’s time to say goodbye.”

“Auntie, no, you’ll get better.”

“I’m sorry sweetheart, but I can feel it, this is the end for me.  I have no regrets, I die with a heart full of love.  I want more than anything else right now, to know that you will be happy.  You’ve held yourself back for years.  Cultivated this untouchable persona, but I know the real Sharon, I knew the girl who loved to be hugged, who fussed with dolls and played dress up in my old gowns.  Find someone, don’t live your life alone.  Don’t be like me, my darling girl, be better.  I was alone because I was proud and foolish and so very stubborn.  Promise you’ll let someone in, let them see the warm heart I know you have.”

“I promise Auntie.  I love you so much.  I’ll be alright.  You can go, now.  I’ll be okay, I still have all our family to look out for me.  You were the best mother, thank you for believing in me, when I didn’t even believe in myself.”

“It was the best decision I ever made…  I am so proud of you…  tell the others..  tell them I said we’ll meet again……”

Sharon Carter felt the tears run down her face.  She sat for a long time in the silence, feeling the hand in hers start to cool.  She knew she had to let go, but it was so hard.  Eventually she lay her Aunt’s hand down gently and straightened the sheet around her before standing and leaving the room.  She wiped the tears from her eyes angrily with the back of her hand.  She had phone calls to make.  She hit speed dial and waited.  The English lilt in the voice that answered was so like her aunt’s that tears pricked her eyes again.

“She’s gone.”  The silence and then the sharp intake of breath was a comfort she hadn’t known she was looking for.

“She said to tell you that “We’ll meet again.””

Weak laughter tinkled from the line.

“Of course she did.”  Peggy Carter agreed wearily, grief heavy in her voice.


End file.
